Companies comment on Egyptian operations

08 February 2011

Firms in Egypt have started to resume operations for the first time in a week.

Suez Cement, the country’s largest listed cement company said it had resumed shipments of cement stocks that had been suspended by political protests. Suez, a subsidiary of Italcementi, which supplies roughly a quarter of Egypt’s grey cement and 42 percent of its white cement, resumed operations in all its factories as of Saturday.

Lafarge announced it has also resumed its cement production and dispatch activities as of Saturday 5th February 2011. The announcement comes to jump-start the distribution of cement, following the recent events in Egypt last week, which have crippled distribution activities in Egypt and led to gradually decreasing production levels. In an effort to fulfill the accumulated demand for cement in the Egyptian market, the company has decided to reopen its nationwide sales offices to receive customer’s orders as of Sunday, 6 February 2011.

Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt’s biggest listed firm said it had resumed work at almost 90 per cent of its construction sites in Egypt as of Sunday. The building and fertilizer group said it had started work at 50 locations. Some sites, primarily joint ventures, remained closed, but OCI said it was in talks with partners to restart those.
Published under Cement News